The end of the year is imminent and we are back at the studio shooting our Spring/Summer 2018 Atlantic collection, which is to be launched in January.

As the traditionally overwritten show notes state, the collection steps back savvily to 1957 and the canny, clear-sighted confines of the Whitney Museum of American Art, where it casts a keen, captivated eye over Ellsworth Kelly’s three crisp and coolly confident contributions to the cutting-edge Young America exhibition.

The second image features a contemporary shirt in our flitting deep pink butterfly print, exemplifying the easy-to-wear, softly shifting character of the collection.

Take Socks: The Rule Book (Mitchell Beazley), which we came across on our recent trip to Japan.

Here is a book that tells you everything you could ever want to know about socks (and quite a lot you might not want to know…) expect how, in their singular form, they tend to vanish into thin air.

Washing your socks and preparing them for their next outing The Rule Book way is a particular palaver: hand wash only in warm (not hot) water with non-perfumed soap before rinsing and hanging to dry. But not so they’re bone dry, because it pays to iron them when they’re still on the damp side.

Each to their own, but our seamless, hand-linked Merino socks fit so smoothly and snugly you can probably get away without ironing and they always look more than presentable after – as per their instructions – a 40C machine wash with like colours, which will also leave you more time to expand your horizons in one way or another.

Our resident music maestro Kevin – yes, he of Medley’s Melodies and the man who puts the soundtracks together for our runway shows and collection presentations – has gone back to the ’70s and discovered the proto punk poet Patrik Fitzgerald, who, we are pleased to discover, is still performing.

A supplier of ours actually produced a fanzine called Anonymous Society at the time Fitzgerald first emerged and was sent a couple of these 7″ records by his label Small Wonder to review. And having spied our new turntable, he brought them in so we could give them a spin. Playing, top, is Trendy from the Backstreet Boys EP of 1978.

Look and listen out for more rare and esoteric vinyl at the Bespoke store soon.

A bit more ombré, that elusively elegant effect that, having appeared on pocket squares (as it does here), wallets and the Savile Row eau de toilettepackaging, has become something of a Richard James trademark, underlining our commitment to colour.

To illustrate his pull, Richard reposes (top) with Richard James-clad actors Tom Bateman, Tom Ellis and Ben Robson while (middle) Bateman and Toby Huntington-Whitely model prototypes of the Swarovski crystal-encrusted evening jackets we made for Elton John and (bottom) Huntington-Whitely is moved by a SS16 My Green Trauma shirt.